F ROM

THE

E XECUTIVE D IRECTOR ’ S D ESK

Letter from the Executive Director I have now passed my one-year anniversary. I am heartened by the National Campaign’s progress, and want to take this opportunity to acknowledge that it is the result of focused effort by both the board and staff, and the support and long-term investment of partners and funders. Thank you to all, and to staff in particular, for staying the course and helping us position the National Campaign for the long haul. A key element of our progress is an initiative to evaluate and strengthen our policy work. Over the summer we closely examined the issues we have chosen for our committees, the committees’ structures, and how better to integrate their work and increase their depth and impact. Along the way, something else happened. The group that took this on was intentionally made up of passionate advocates for each of our many different issues. As we worked together in depth, the process itself allowed each of us to move beyond individual interests, and shape our trees into a healthy, balanced forest. This process, and its result, shows us the heart of what the National Campaign brings to the sustainable agriculture movement. Other convenings have contributed to our progress, as well: n We participated in Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education’s (SARE) national conference in August with a workshop that got over 100 participants actively involved in thinking about how to build the movement, and what the National Campaign might uniquely offer in its support. n I attended the annual NOFA conference in Amherst, MA, to support the important efforts of our Organic Committee in its first phase of testing a draft National Organic Action Plan around the country. Liana Hoodes’ work with the Committee is time and time again referred to as the reason for its success. While our national Committee now has 166 members, the 2-day workshop brought together about 50 people on each day from the Northeast region alone—all deeply engaged in organic issues. n In October I combined participation in diversity training offered by the Community Food Security Coalition in California, with visits to local farmers and advocates organized by Claudia Reid of the California Coalition for Food & Farming. This is work toward my goal to build stronger relationships in the West. n A final and especially critical convening this fall was the National Campaign’s full board/staff retreat in Kansas City. This focused discussion of our issues and capacity energized our organization and will allow us to finalize a strategic plan that will carry us forward into the future. Great ideas to build a better food system make better reading than what we do to increase our effectiveness and efficiency, but I want supporters to know we are doing what is necessary to build an effective organization that makes the most of every dollar given, and every hour worked. Thank you for your help! Deborah M. Burd Executive Director

Page 2

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture P.O. Box 396, Pine Bush, NY 12566 Tel (845) 361-5201 Fax (845) 361-5204 www.sustainableagriculture.net The NCSA is a diverse nationwide partnership of individuals and organizations cultivating grassroots efforts to engage in policy development processes that result in food and agricultural systems and rural communities that are healthy, environmentally sound, profitable, humane and just.

Staff Deborah Burd, Executive Director Sheilah Davidson, Administrative Director Yancey Stanforth-Migliore, Fund Development and Communications Coordinator, Newsletter Editor

Consultants Devin Ceartas, Webmaster and Technology Consultant Liana Hoodes, Organic Policy Coordinator Margaret Krome, Agricultural Appropriations

Board of Directors Co-Chair: Karen Anderson NOFA New Jersey, Northeast SAWG Co-Chair: Thomas Forster Community Food Security Coalition Secretary: Lydia Villanueva La C.A.S.A. del Llano Treasurer: Kristen Greer At-large Board Member Frank Casey Defenders of Wildlife Archer Christian Southern SAWG Carol Coren At-large Board Member Michael Heller Clagett Farm/Chesapeake Bay Foundation Savi Horne Land Loss Prevention Project Margaret Huelsman Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Roger Jones Heifer International Loni Kemp The Minnesota Project Linda Kleinschmit At-large Board Member Kim Leval Center for Rural Affairs/Midwest SAWG Kathy Ozer National Family Farm Coalition Richard Parrott Western SAWG Donnie Valdez Nat’l Assoc. of Latino/Hispanic Farmers & Ranchers

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Fall 2006

B UILDING

THE

BUILDING THE MOVEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE By Sheilah Davidson Administrative Director

Who makes up our movement? How well do we collaborate? How well do our advocates listen to the grassroots? Most importantly, how do we grow to increase our influence for a healthier food system? These and many other questions were discussed in our workshop, “Building a Sustainable Agriculture Movement”, presented in August by Margaret Krome of Michael Fields Agriculture Institute, Archer Christian of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Anim Steel of the Food Project and Sheilah Davidson of the National Campaign. The workshop was one of hundreds presented at this summer’s National Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) conference in Oconomowoc, WI. Chaired by National Campaign Board Member, Linda Kleinschmit, the conference brought together thousands of farmers and ranchers, university staff, policymakers, non-profits and students for sustainable agriculture workshops, roundtables, field trips and outstanding meals from local foods. Complete information, including many presentations, is at http://www.Sare2006.Org/ Our workshop, attended by nearly 100 participants, generated lively discussion about how to build our base and also create opportunities to pass on knowledge to young leaders, as well as praise for the diversity and broad cooperation of our movement. Some strategies that emerged were to develop: 1) an identity (similar to the USDA organic label) for our movement, 2) an organized dialogue on translating institutional knowledge, and 3) more user-friendly (non-wonk) language. The workshop also highlighted two movement-building tools offered by the National Campaign. The first is a set of broadly supported Principles and Criteria to use for building agreement on sustainable agriculture issues. Produced by last year’s Commodity Policy Dialogue, it is available at http://tinyurl.com/ mt45r. The other is the Sustainable Agriculture Movement Database (SAMD), a web-based advocacy network. In addition to providing an easy way to mobilize supporters, this technology was designed to provide high-tech communications capacity to others in the movement. For more on how you can use SAMD to build your own organization and the movement, see http://tinyurl.com/fwbq3.

M OVEMENT TAKING IT TO THE PEOPLE: A New Action Plan Asks You to Look Beyond the USDA to Shape the Future of Organic By Liana Organic Hoodes, Organic By Liana Hoodes, Policy Coordinator

Policy

Coordinator

After years of reacting to USDA’s National Organic Program and implementation of the Organic Foods Production Act, it has become clear that it’s time for the entire organic community—farmers, consumers, farm workers, trade, urban and rural groups—to take a step forward and develop a vision for the future of Organic. RAFIUSA has taken the lead, along with the National Campaign Organic Committee and the National Organic Coalition, by organizing the broad organic community to come together to shape a wide-ranging National Organic Action Plan that takes the long view—10 to 20 years in the future. We have initiated a series of public dialogues all over the country to examine national and federal priorities for organic agriculture. Everyone is welcome! The scope and vision will take shape as the dialogues progress. It could include both governmental and non-governmental goals for where organic should go, and how to get there: from 2007 Farm Bill priorities for Organic, to acreage and sales goals for the future, as well as incorporating quantitative and qualitative measures for a long list of societal benefits. Dialogue meetings will seek full audience participation to outline interests, visions, and concerns for the future, as well as how to map this in a comprehensive National Plan. Countries throughout the world have developed such plans, creating a great variety of visions. Our first dialogue was held at the Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference in Massachusetts. We were impressed to find that on a hot August day, 45 farmers, consumers, coop folks and land grant researchers were happy to dedicate a day inside to talking policy—hashing out new ideas and examining existing infrastructure to envision an exciting future for organic.

HELP US SHAPE THE ORGANIC ACTION PLAN! Meetings will be held in every region of the country over the coming year to gather people’s ideas and opinions, culminating in a National Summit in 2008. Please join us, everyone is welcome! Dates and locations now set are: ü November 15th and 16th, 2006, at the Oregon Tilth Annual Meeting, Salem, Oregon; and ü January 24th and 25th, 2007, at the EcoFarm Conference, Monterey, California. More will follow in 2007, with locations including Kentucky at the Southern SAWG Conference in January, Pennsylvania in February, one in the Upper Midwest also in February, and one in Flagstaff Arizona in March. For more information, contact Liana Hoodes: [email protected], 845-744-2304

Fall 2006

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Page 3

T HE F ARM B ILL : W HY AN ALTERNATIVE REALITY: IT’S UP TO YOU

by phone they asked from whom, by whom, for whom, and to what end were laws being passed?

A parable, imagining what the future might look like if citizens decide to weigh in against special interests on food policy

By Chris Campany. Former Policy Director at the National Campaign, now a county planner in Maryland

Time was, the piece of federal legislation that establishes the rules for food and farming, the Farm Bill, was largely dictated by a few major corporate interests that controlled the purchase and processing of most of the crops and livestock produced on the remaining farms. They also controlled the markets and the marketplace, and what the average citizen had available to eat. Sure, they used rhetoric about how the Farm Bill would save our family farms. But the reality was that after each Bill ran its course there were fewer farms and farmers around to hear what Congress was going to do for them next. The good people in Congress voted the way they were told, and it’s hard to blame them. Fact was, most didn’t know there were any alternatives out there, and even fewer understood the connection between the law they passed and the damage being done to the farmers, the land, and people’s food choices. How times have changed! It began with the farmers. They increasingly realized that if they wanted to grow crops or raise livestock, they had to do so under contract with one company or another because there was no other place to sell. The companies had virtual control over their farms; telling them what to grow, how to grow it, and what price they would take. They couldn’t save seeds, or breed their own livestock, because someone held the patent on the genetics. And they bore all the risk—financial, environmental, labor. But every year at the county fair elected representatives came back from D.C. to tell the farmers they were the backbone of this great nation. Then there was the general public—the people who didn’t farm but had to eat. Choosing food based on the way it was grown or processed was becoming harder because there was little to choose from. Even at the farmers’ markets new regulations meant they couldn’t buy things like cheese, meat, eggs and pickles from farmers they’d bought from for years. And something was happening to the water. Water that had run clear was now choked with algae. Fish and shellfish they’d eaten all their lives were diseased, contaminated, or deformed. Bacteria closed beaches. But elected representatives at the county fair said the laws protected the environment and ensured a safe food supply. But in 2006 something happened. The farmers and the public saw what was happening, and they began to ask questions. They learned more about the state of farms, food and nature. They went to meetings of sustainable agriculture organizations. There they found farmers and non-farmers alike who were asking the same questions, working together on solutions that bridged family farm, environmental, nutrition, and social justice issues. And at the county fairs they asked elected officials what they really knew about the farm policies they’d enacted. In the press, through letters, by e-mail, and

Page 4

They hosted visits for those representatives from D.C. They took them on tours of farms and markets, and potluck fundraisers in backyards. They educated their representatives about alternatives to the status quo, real alternatives that had to be seen, and tasted, to be believed. They had become policy activists. And through these actions the policymakers came to the same simple but profound realization that had mobilized these hopeful people in the first place. They came to understand how much the Farm Bill dictates the system of food and agriculture we have in this country, and the quality of life in the countryside. It dictates what control farmers have over their own land and business, the fate of farm communities, what choices consumers have, what food will be available to those most in need, and how agriculture impacts our environment. And before long the representatives from D.C. had questions of their own. Having met hopeful people, and having been educated about the hope of sustainable agriculture, the representatives left D.C. and went back to their communities where they began to ask, “For the good of this nation, what can I do to make sustainable agriculture the foundation of our farm, food and environmental policy?” And so it began. The moral of my story? It is up to us to make our policy makers ask the right questions, the most important being the same one we must ask ourselves: For the good of this nation, what can I do to make sustainable agriculture the foundation of our farm, food and environmental policy?

GET INVOLVED WITH THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN! For people who care about food, health and the land, the National Campaign is the organization that gives you direct input into federal agriculture policy. We offer you several easy ways to promote change in the food system: ü

Sign up for our Email Action Alerts at www.sustainable agriculture.net/signupAA/php. You’ll know what’s going on, and when your representatives in Congress need to hear from you to support policy change.

ü

Make a contribution, which will support public education about federal food policy, making grassroots advocacy easy, and shaping proposals for new and better policy through our policy committees.

ü

Bring us your ideas by participating in one of our policy committees.

ü

Encourage related organizations to become National Campaign Partners.

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Fall 2006

S HOULD Y OU C ARE ? ONE THING TO DO ABOUT FOOD By Michael Pollan, Reprinted with permission from The Nation. For subscriptions, see thenation.com

Every five years or so the President of the United States signs an obscure piece of legislation that determines what happens on a couple of hundred million acres of private land in America, what sort of food Americans eat (and how much it costs) and, as a result, the health of our population. In a nation consecrated to the idea of private property and free enterprise, you would not think any piece of legislation could have such far-reaching effects, especially one about which so few of us—even the most politically aware—know anything. But in fact the American food system is a game played according to a precise set of rules that are written by the federal government with virtually no input from anyone beyond a handful of farm-state legislators. Nothing could do more to reform America’s food system—and by doing so improve the condition of America’s environment and public health—than if the rest of us were suddenly to weigh in. The farm bill determines what our kids eat for lunch in school every day. Right now, the school lunch program is designed not around the goal of children’s health but to help dispose of surplus agricultural commodities, especially cheap feedlot beef and dairy products, both high in fat. The farm bill writes the regulatory rules governing the production of meat in this country, determining whether the meat we eat comes from sprawling, brutal, polluting factory farms and the big four meatpackers (which control 80 percent of the market) or from local farms. Most important, the farm bill determines what crops the govern-

ORGANIC RESEARCH By Brise Tencer, Organic Farming Research Foundation

One of the most pressing issues facing organic producers today is lack of information. There are few resources for organic growers wanting scientific solutions to production problems, and perhaps even fewer to help them understand the unique aspects of organic marketing and economics. Lack of information on organic is also a significant obstacle to conventional growers considering the transition to organic systems. The 2007 Farm Bill is our opportunity to change this trend, and get farmers the information they need. Specific recommendations for the Farm Bill include: USDA Agricultural Research Service: Only 12 of 1,200 research projects at 100 research stations are on-farm organic projects. Only one of the 2,100 scientists in the entire country is dedicated to organic. n

Organic agriculture should be assigned its own national program with oversight by a National Program Leader, and $20 million per year should be dedicated to organic research.

Fall 2006

ment will support—and in turn what kinds of foods will be plentiful and cheap. Today that means, by and large, corn and soybeans. These two crops are the building blocks of the fast-food nation: A McDonald’s meal (and most of the processed food in your supermarket) consists of clever arrangements of corn and soybeans—the corn providing the added sugars, the soy providing the added fat, and both providing the feed for the animals. These crop subsidies (which are designed to encourage overproduction rather than to help farmers by supporting prices) are the reason that the cheapest calories in an American supermarket are precisely the unhealthiest. An American shopping for food on a budget soon discovers that a dollar buys hundreds more calories in the snack food or soda aisle than it does in the produce section. Why? Because the farm bill supports the growing of corn but not the growing of fresh carrots. In the midst of a national epidemic of diabetes and obesity our government is, in effect, subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn syrup. This absurdity would not persist if more voters realized that the farm bill is not a parochial piece of legislation concerning only the interests of farmers. Today, because so few of us realize we have a dog in this fight, our legislators feel free to leave deliberations over the farm bill to the farm states, very often trading away their votes on agricultural policy for votes on issues that matter more to their constituents. But what could matter more than the health of our children and the health of our land? Perhaps the problem begins with the fact that this legislation is commonly called “the farm bill”—how many people these days even know a farmer or care about agriculture? Yet we all eat. So perhaps that’s where we should start, now that the debate over the 2007 farm bill is about to be joined. This time around let’s call it “the food bill” and put our legislators on notice that this is about us and we’re paying attention.

USDA Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES) The Integrated Organic Program is one of the most competitive grants programs at CSREES. The following resources are needed to support it: n n n

A permanent, full-time Organic National Program Leader, Funding increased to $15 million mandatory per year, with a distinct line for producers, and Expansion to include new grants within the Marketing and Economic Systems.

The USDA CSREES Integrated Pest Management Centers should develop “Strategic Plans for Organic Best Management Practices”, as a component of the Section 406 pest management activity. Organic plant and animal breeding should become a priority area within existing National Research Initiative germplasm programs. USDA CSREES formula funding to Land-Grant Universities should encourage increased research in organic production and marketing. Data Collection: The Organic Production and Marketing Data Initiative provided for in the 2002 Farm Bill should be fully implemented at AMS, NASS, and ERS.

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Page 5

O UR P ARTNERS CURRENT PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS IN GOOD STANDING (AS OF 10/13/06) For a full list of participating partners please go to our website at www.sustainableagriculture.net/contributing.php Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO) American Farmland Trust American Grassfed Association Berkshire Co-Op Market California Certified Organic Farmers Campaign for Family Farms and The Environment CASA del Llano (Communities Assuring a Sustainable Agriculture) CATA (Comte de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas—Farmworker Support Committee) Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Sioux City Iowa Center for Food Safety Center for Rural Affairs Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) Chefs Collaborative Clagett Farm, Chesapeake Bay Foundation CitySeed, Inc. Community Food Security Coalition* Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, (CISA) Cornucopia Institute Defenders of Wildlife Etka Consulting Family Farm Defenders Family Farms for the Future Florida Certified Organic Growers & Consumers, Inc. Food and Water Watch Food Animal Concerns Trust (F.A.C.T.) Georgia Poultry Justice Alliance Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)/Sustainable Table Grassroots International Heifer International* Hispanic Farmers and Ranchers of America, Inc. Hoosier Organic Marketing Education Humane Society of the United States Independent Organic Inspectors Association Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Just Food Land Loss Prevention Project Land Stewardship Project Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Maysie’s Farm Conservation Center Michael Fields Agricultural Institute* Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Minnesota Food Association The Minnesota Project* Missouri Farmers Union National Catholic Rural Life Conference

Page 6

National Center for Appropriate Technology Sustainable Agriculture Program National Family Farm Coalition National Hmong American Farmers, Inc. Northeast Office of Heifer International New England Small Farm Institute Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance Northeast Organic Farming Association-Massachusetts Northeast Organic Farming Association-New Jersey Northeast Organic Farming Association-New York Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Oneonta Community Co-op Oregon Tilth Organic Consumers Association Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing (OFARM) Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) Organic Seed Alliance Organization for Competitive Markets Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) Research, Education, Action and Policy on Food Group (REAP) Rochester Roots: Growing Youth, Growing Community, Growing Food Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Rodale Institute Rural Advancement Foundation International* (RAFI-USA) Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural Southeast Llama Rescue Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Trappe Landing Farm and Native Sanctuary Tucker Hill Farm Tufts Food Awareness Project Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative, Inc. Union of Concerned Scientists* United Methodist General Board of Church and Society University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture Urban Agriculture Network, Inc. Virginia Association for Biological Farming Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Weston A. Price Foundation WSU Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources *We gratefully acknowledge the close partnership and support beyond basic dues received from these organizations.

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Fall 2006

C HANGE

ON

T HE G ROUND

WHERE GOOD POLICY WILL TAKE US: One Example of What a Great Food System Looks Like By Judy Fink, Assistant Director of Programs, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

Every Tuesday morning from May through October Jack Algiere steals some time from harvesting tomatoes, adjusting the irrigation, or brewing up the biodiesel that runs the farm’s off-road equipment, to sit at the computer and compose Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s Four Seasons Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) weekly newsletter. The newsletter is distributed to the 40 members of the CSA, who have invested in the farm and its bounty, as well as to Stone Barns staff. As Four Seasons Grower, Jack’s newsletter includes a list of the produce members will find in their baskets along with seasonal recipes, farming observations and ruminations, and information about upcoming events. Jack views the CSA newsletter as only one of the approaches to invite the community to engage in Stone Barns’ mission—to demonstrate, teach and promote sustainable, community-based food production. Stone Barns occupies a unique niche in suburban Westchester County just 30 miles north of New York City. We are an 80-acre non-profit farm and education center practicing ecological farming and raising produce and livestock year-round. What we raise is then sold to an on-site restaurant (Blue Hill at Stone Barns), to the public at twice-weekly on-site farmers’ markets, and to CSA members. We have a robust school program, farm camp, internship and volunteer program, and invite the community to participate in workshops, lectures, and cooking demonstrations celebrating farmto-table agriculture. Children, adults, and families help prepare beds

in the greenhouse for planting, collect and wash eggs, and help Craig Haney, Livestock Manager, move fences so that our sheep can graze on fresh grass daily. There is nothing more basic, or more pleasurable, than getting your hands dirty planting seeds, weeding, harvesting vegetables, and then creating and eating a meal freshly picked from your backyard garden. Second to that is getting involved with the farm that grows your food. With each successive season, it becomes clearer that our community wants to better understand how food fits into their lives; they want to have a local, healthful and dependable source for their food, and they want to be part of an organization that is vibrant and ecologically conscious. In the August 15 CSA basket, members were treated to heirloom tomatoes in a rainbow of colors and sizes, chard, choi, beets, turnips, carrots, peppers, herbs and watermelon, and Jack’s newsletter. Jack talked about the balance between what we offer to the public and what the public increasingly asks of us. He wrote, “Our community’s increasing involvement is what fuels this diverse farm operation. Your support helps sustain this business and helps us promote a greater understanding of the complexities of our food system. While this farm may offer an unusual amount of diversity in animals and vegetables, it is the diversity of the local community that will support this endeavor in the end. As the heyday of big agribusiness declines, the safety and security of a local food shed becomes preeminent. Our food source can return to our hands.” Stone Barns has enlisted outside experts this year to inform a strategic planning initiative. National Campaign Executive Director, Deborah Burd, is participating in this process.

CALLING CONGRESS IS EASY! By Yancey Stanforth-Migliore, Fund Development and Communications Coordinator

I work at the National Campaign, so you might think I’ve been comfortable calling and writing Congress since I was in diapers. Not so! Although I’ve always held strong opinions on the things I believe in, I’m very shy about debating people. I can write a great letter when I set my mind to it, but between my work, and my home farm and family, I can’t seem to find the time. Of course I’m on the National Campaign’s Email Alert List for my work here, but I used to tell myself those alerts were asking other people to take action….not me. Finally an issue came along that I couldn’t turn my back on, and I decided to risk calling Congress. Why did I think it was a risk? I think I was worried about getting some tough-minded policy expert on the phone who’d debate me. They might make me feel I didn’t know what I was talking about, or that I was taking them away from something more important. Instead, I found it was quick, easy, and best of all—empowering! It turned out the staffers answering the phones in my Senator and Congressman’s offices really did feel it was their job to note my opinion. I felt good about having spoken up, and thanks to the Action Alert I was calling just as votes were scheduled on Capitol Hill so I had some genuine hope that my opinion would have an effect. So next time you get an Alert that inspires you, grab the phone and see how good it feels to call, and how little time it takes! Fall 2006

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Page 7

M AKING

IT

H APPEN : O UR S UPPORTERS

FUNDING THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN We are delighted to acknowledge our deep gratitude to the following foundations, each of which made grants to fund work done in 2006. Their belief in the fundamental importance of a robust national debate on federal agriculture policy makes our work possible. Agua Fund Compton Foundation Donald and Carole Chaiken Foundation Farm Aid David B. Gold Foundation Helianthus Fund W.K. Kellogg Foundation Lawson Valentine Foundation The McKnight Foundation New Leaf Fund

New World Fund New York Community Trust The North Pond Foundation Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation The Orentreich Family Fund Oxfam America Presbyterian Hunger Project Presbyterian Rural Ministry Sandy River Charitable Foundation

In 2005, 67% of our revenue came from foundations and 19% from our partners. The final critical 14% was received from individuals, whose donations make them true Contributing Partners in our work. The National Campaign is about people, and gifts from individuals are important both to the vitality of our programs, as well as to our financial strength.

G

G

THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOU! 1. TO HELP US MEET AN IMPORTANT CHALLENGE!

The Sandy River Charitable Foundation has awarded a grant to help us build our capacity. If we can raise $100,000 in new or increased gifts by next June, we will qualify for an additional $50,000 from Sandy River! With the Farm Bill coming up, this is a great time to become a supporter, or to increase your gift to the National Campaign: every dollar will leverage a 50% match! Gifts can be made by mail or online at www.sustainableagriculture.net/donate.php

2. TO HELP US CONSERVE RESOURCES WHILE THE MOVEMENT!

WE

BUILD

A

POWERFUL BASE

FOR

If you can’t give but you do care about healthy food and farming, we need to hear from you! We are cleaning our newsletter mailing list in order to use our resources wisely. Those who contribute or who’ve been in touch as activists or members of our committees will continue to receive the newsletter, but if we haven’t heard from you we must stop mailing next year. If you haven’t been in touch you must take action now by emailing sheilah@sustainableagriculture. net, or mailing in the enclosed response card, to let us know you want to continue to receive the National Campaign’s newsletter.

Fall 2006

www.sustainableagriculture.net

Page 8